LEAD POISONING

In 2nd week of December recently, I examined one patient, 25 years old foreign worker, who was brought to our hospital's Accident & Emergency (A&E) Department around 9:00 a.m. for having severe abdominal pain associated with vomiting after taking food.

 2 week earlier, he came to our A&E with  the same problem and was treated as outpatient as a case of acute gastritis. His symptoms was relieved after given treatment.

This time, his symptoms were really severe, described as crampy abdomen and generalised body weakness. Clinical examination however showed his abdomen was soft but the bowel sound was hyperactive. Vital signs was stable. *Later examination also found he has bluish discoloration line of his gum (Burton's line) which is the sign of plumbum poisoning.(See photo on the top).

Due to severity of his symptoms , he was advised for admission.

He came with a company driver  where he works for 2 years. The company main business is battery manufacturing.

Initially I suspected the patient has Acute Gasteroenteritis (AGE) but later included Acute Lead Poisoning as the diagnosis after obtained his occupational history. His blood was sent for Lead/Plumbum level as well as full blood investigations.

Mean while  he was investigated for other causes of acute abdomen including abdominal xray(AXR) and abdomen ultrasound(AUS) and blood amylase as ordered by Physician in-charge. AXR & AUS were suggestive of subacute abdominal obstruction, however his blood amylase was normal. His Full blood counts and picture showed a feature of iron defieciency anaemia.

5 days later, his blood lead result was ready with a reading of 212 microgram/dL which is more than 5 times of normal limit as allowed by  Factories & Machinery Act(FMA) 1967 (Lead Regulations 1984) and USECHH 2000 Regulation under OSHA 1994 ( less than 40 microgram/dL).

This case is very misleading and show the importance of occupational history in history taking of the patient to get a clue to diagnose  acute lead poisoning, otherwise the diagnosis can be missed or delayed.

Stress @ Work

Stress @ Work sometime started during your morning trip to office. If your route to office has traffic jammed and you are late, you started to have stress.

Stress can be identify through your feeling, behaviour, thinking and body reaction.

Too much stress or also called DISTRESS in long term can jeopardise your health, leading to some psychosomatic illness like High blood pressure, Gastritis etc and Mental ill-health.

So inorder to overcome the stress you must know its two components : Stressors and Response.

Stressor is a situation you are in which causes the STRESS, example : Traffic jammed as in above photo and you are late to attend a meeting at your office.

Response is how you cope with the stressors.

You need to change either Stressors or your Response in order to successfully live with stress. In  real life, you cannot expect stress-free life. Life is full of stress BUT too much stress and poor response to it will affect your health both physically and mentally.

SEMINAR ON OSH AT WORKPLACE Organised by NIOSH SARAWAK

On the 5th December, 2007 I was invited by NIOSH Sarawak to deliver a presentation on Stress @ Work at the above Seminar. This two days Seminar (4 & 5th December, 2007) was taking place at Merdeka Palace Hotel's Merdeka Hall at level 3. My presentation started from 1: 30 pm to 2:30 pm. Although a bit tired after coming back from KL holiday trip early morning the same day, but I accepted the invitation which was given to me on Friday 30 Nov. 2007

Over the weekend holiday at Bukit Fraser, Pahang I started to prepare my presentation slides.

My presentation was divided into 4 scopes :

1. Understanding Stress and Its Components

2. Causes of Stress at Workplace

3. The Effect of Stress on Organization

4. Basic Management of Stress

For the visitors of this blog who want the presentation material in pdf form, can request from me by providing  your email address.

About 120 participants from private and local government agencies attended the seminar.

BASIC ERGONOMICS WORKSHOP

I accompanied Ergonomics Guru, Dr Jalaluddin Dahalan of My-ERGOWORKS, who conducted one day workshop on Basic ERGONOMICS for the employees of Taiyo Yuden Sarawak Sdn Bhd, at SamaJaya Free Industrial Zones, Kuching on 20th November 2007.

30 employees who attended the workshop, learned about the basic knowledge on ERGONOMICS which aimed at creating EFFECIENCY AND WORK STANDARDS by improving the work flow and environment which fit to the capability of the workers, so that they can increase their PRODUCTIVITY. Fitting the workplace to the capability of the workers is vital inorder to safeguard the workers SAFETY and HEALTH.

By ignoring ERGONOMICS values at workplace, the workers will suffer Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs). MSDs - if detected at earlier stage, will reduce the medical cost as well as prevent the workers from further injury and disability.  If UNERGONOMICS situation is not corrected earlier , it will cause irreversible Musculoskeletal Injuries -   affecting primary tool (workers) capability to perform and affect the productivity performance of the company.

Dr Jalaluddin asked me to give lecture on Musculoskeletals Disorders, Thank you Sifu.

KEADAAN TIDAK SELAMAT

Gambar di atas  menunjukkan keadaan lantai yang tidak selamat.

KAKI MELECUR KERANA CECAIR KIMIA

Gambar di atas menunjukkkan kaki seorang pekerja dari sebuah kilang besi-keluli, yang melecur akibat tumpahan cecair kimia toksik yang digunakan di tempat kerja. Gambar ini diambil selepas 4 hari kejadian tersebut berlaku.

KEADAAN TIDAK SELAMAT

Gambar di atas, saya ambil dari sebuah restoran beberapa bulan lepas.

KEADAAN TIDAK SELAMAT

Gambar di atas adalah gambaran kesesakan kenderaan di bulatan Padang Merdeka di Bandaraya Kuching pada bulan Ramadhan yang lepas. Kesesakan jalanraya merupakan satu keadaan tidak selamat dan boleh mengakibatkan kemalangan jalanraya jika ianya disertai oleh sikap atau amalan pemanduan yang cuai. Keadaan tidak selamat merupakan salah satu faktor penyumbang kemalangan. Keadaan tidak selamat selalunya melibatkan keadaan persekitaran seperti persekitaran tempat kerja, keadaan jalanraya dan sebagainya.

TINDAKAN/AMALAN TIDAK SELAMAT

Gambar di atas menunjukkan beberapa amalan/tindakan yang tidak selamat.

TINDAKAN TIDAK SELAMAT

Selalunya,sesuatu  kemalangan berpunca daripada dua faktor penyebab iaitu Tindakan Tidak Selamat (Unsafe Act) dan Keadaan Tidak Selamat (Unsafe Condition).  Faktor penyumbang lain yang terlibat ialah sikap perlakuan (behaviour) seseorang yang menghasilkan tindakan yang tidak selamat tersebut. Gambar di atas saya rakam pada 3 November yang lalu ketika saya dalam perjalanan untuk melawat anak saya di asrama sekolah. Pemandu tersebut telah secara sedar atau tidak mengambil risiko untuk memotong kenderaan saya dan beberapa kenderaan di hadapan. Nasib beliau agak baik kerana kemalangan belum berlaku. Konsekuen daripada perlakuan  dan tindakan beliau yang berisiko tinggi ini akan menyebabkan beliau meneruskan perlakuan ini pada masa akan datang. Ini dinamakan konsep ABC (Activator-Behaviour-Consequence) atau dipanggil oleh Prof. Al-Mahdi sebagai 'The Law of Learning', yang menjadi asas kepada aliran Keselamatan Berasaskan Perlakuan (Behaviour-Based Safety/BBS).

Oleh kerana tiada kemalangan berlaku, pemandu tersebut mendapat kepuasan daripada tindakan beliau, merasakan dialah 'juara' pada hari tersebut. Kepuasan ini akan menggalakkan beliau meneruskan amalan memandu tersebut pada masa akan datang sehinggalah berakhir dengan konsekuen negatif iaitu kemalangan. 

Kusyen Belakang

Hari ini saya membeli sebuah kusyen kerusi yang memberi sokongan kepada tulang belakang ketika kita duduk. Rekabentuk kusyen tersebut mengikut lengkungan tulang spinal yang berbentuk huruf S.

Kusyen magik ini boleh dikatakan kusyen yang ergonomiks yang dapat mengurangkan kesan kerusi yang tidak dibuat secara ergonomiks yang menyebabkan sakit tulang belakang (Low back pain) iaitu sejenis masalah "musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)".

KEMALANGAN

Kemalangan boleh ditakrifkan sebagai kejadian berlaku yang tidak diingini dan tidak dirancang, yang mengakibatkan kemudaratan kepada manusia, hartabenda dan persekitaran. Kemalangan adalah satu akibat atau konsekuen kerana mengabaikan aspek keselamatan. Kemalangan adalah kejadian yang tidak dirancang, sebaliknya jika sesuatu kejadian kemalangan dirancang berlaku, maka ianya adalah satu sabotaj. Kemalangan membawa kemudaratan kepada manusia seperti kecederaan, gangguan kesihatan malah kematian. Kemalangan juga boleh memusnahkan persekitaran dan hartabenda.

Kemalangan tidak berlaku secara tiba-tiba sebaliknya ianya berlaku hasil daripada rangkaian peristiwa yang menyumbang kemalangan tersebut. Rangkaian peristiwa yang menyumbangkan kemalangan boleh dibahagi kepada faktor penyebab kemalangan dan faktor penyumbang kemalangan.

SELAMAT MENYAMBUT EIDUL FITRI

Sempena kedatangan Syawal 1428 Hijrah, saya sekeluarga ingin mengucapkan Selamat menyambut hari raya eidul fitri kepada seluruh kaum muslimin-muslimat. Semuga madrasah Ramadhan Al-Mubarak berjaya mentarbiyah kita terutamanya dalam mengawal hawa nafsu. Mudah-mudahan kemeriahan hari raya ini tidak melalaikan kita terhadap aspek keselamatan dan kesihatan. Keselamatan di jalanraya hendaklah diberi perhatian sepenuhnya, pandulah dengan cermat dan hati-hati. Ketika berkunjung ke rumah rakan taulan, kawalkan nafsu makan demi menjaga kesihatan kerana hari raya ini banyak jamuan yang mengandungi kolesterol dan gula percuma, ianya tidak baik untuk kesihatan jika tidak diambil secara terkawal. Pada rakan-rakan di bandaraya Kuching, jemputlah datang ke rumah di 403 Jalan Pisang Barat, Kuching pada hari raya pertama dan kedua.

KEMALANGAN LAGI

Dalam perjalanan ke tempat kerja beberapa hari yang lalu, saya melihat sebuah kereta berada di dalam longkang tepi di jalan. Kemalangan ini mungkin berlaku awal pagi atau lewat malam.

Saya masih meyakini bahawa, selain daripada kecuaian pemandu , dua punca penting yang boleh mengakibat kemalangan jalanraya ialah mabuk kerana alkohol dan juga keadaan mengantuk. 

Keadaan mengantuk ini sering berlaku di kalangan pekerja shif. Pekerja shif di kilang-kilang yang beroperasi 24/7 (24 jam, 7 hari berturut-turut) banyak mengalami apa yang dinamakan HUTANG TIDUR (Sleep Debt).

Ada tempat kerja yang secara diam memaksa pekerja mereka membuat kerja lebih masa (over-time) sebaik sahaja pekerja berkenaan habis bekerja shif malam. Pekerja tersebut yang sepatutnya berehat untuk pulih daripada hutang tidur, terpaksa meneruskan kerja atas arahan majikan yang mahu mereka melakukan kerja lebihan masa. Majikan menggunakan istilah "overtime" dengan meletakkan nama pekerja ini dalam jadual kerja di mana pekerja ini tidak mempunyai pilihan.

Saya pernah menemui seorang pekerja yang bekerja 2 minggu berterusan. Pekerja ini datang dalam keadaan yang tidak bermaya dan mengalami keletihan(fatigue) yang amat sangat. Sebagai seorang doktor kesihatan pekerjaan saya memberi nasihat dan menerangkan akibat daripada amalan kerja berterusan kepada pekerja tersebut. Saya terkejut, apabila beliau memberitahu saya yang dia tiada pilihan lain. Beliau meminta cuti sakit, saya rasa itulah alternatif terbaik untuknya. Inilah yang saya namakan hamba abdi moden era perindustrian.

KEMALANGAN DI TEMPAT KERJA

Hari Khamis yang lepas (4 Oktober, 2007) saya menerima seorang pesakit iaitu pekerja dari sebuah kilang pengeluaran. Pekerja ini terlibat dalam satu kemalangan industri. Tangan kirinya terperangkap dalam sebuah mesin yang digunakan dalam proses pengeluaran produk. Menurut pekerja tersebut, kemalangan ini berlaku kerana mesin tersebut tiba-tiba rosak lalu memerangkap tangannya. Tangannya terperangkap dalam mesin selama setengah jam. 

Nasib pekerja tersebut agak baik. Tangannya cuma mengalami kecederaan "soft tissue" termasuk kecederaan saraf yang tidak parah. Tangannya masih dapat berfungsi tetapi mengalami rasa kebas. Kekuatan tangan masih baik. Aliran darahnya masih baik. Kecederaan ini adalah akibat kompressi tangannya yang agak lama. Saya telah mengeluarkan cuti sakit selama 7 hari kepada pekerja ini.

Walaupun unsur "Unsafe Condition" agak jelas dalam penceritaan kes ini, namun penyiasatan kemalangan (Accident Investigation) perlu dibuat untuk mencari fakta sebenar. Kes ini juga perlu dilapor kepada JKKP oleh pihak kilang mengikut peruntukan Peraturan NADOOPOD.

SELAMAT KAH RUMAH ANDA?

Baru-baru ini rumah rakan sekerja saya telah diceroboh masuk oleh 4 orang penyamun pencemar Ramadhan (kerana mereka membuat kerja durjana dalam bulan Ramadhan). Rakan saya baru balik bekerja sekitar jam 12: 30 tengah malam. Beliau masuk beradu (tidur) sekitar jam 1 pagi setelah mempastikan semua pintu rumah dikunci. Tiba-tiba sekitar jam 3 pagi dia terjaga dari tidur setelah 4 penyamun ini menceroboh masuk  kamar tidurnya dengan memecah pintu. Penyamun-penyamun ini bersenjatakan parang dan pisau dan mengarah rakan saya dan isteri serta anak sulongnya supaya diam, setelah isteri dan anaknya menjerit kerana terkejut dengan pencerobohan biadap tersebut. Tangan rakan saya telah diikat dengan wayar manakala tangan isterinya diikat dengan kain. Kesemua barang kemas, 2 laptop dan barang-barang berharga termasuk tali pinggang dan kasut rakan saya disamun. Sebelum penyamun-penyamun durjana itu melesapkan diri, seorang dari mereka mengawal rakan saya sekeluarga di kamar tidur tersebut manakala  3 penyamun lagi meratah semua makanan persediaan untuk sahur puasa Ramadhan. 

Menurut rakan saya, sebiji nasi pun tidak tertinggal di dapur apabila beliau membuat pemeriksaan, setelah beliau dapat membuka ikatan di tangannya selepas 4 penyamun melesapkan diri. Nasib baik rakan saya sekeluarga tidak mengalami kecederaan parah. Dan nasib baik penyamun-penyamun ini tidak menculik anak sulongnya yang berusia 5 tahun itu.

Saya empati mendengar cerita malang rakan sekerja saya ini kerana 3 tahun lepas rumah saya juga kena ceroboh pada ketika saya dan keluarga tiada di rumah.

Dari cerita ini, saya ingin mengajukan pertanyaan : Adakah rumah anda selamat dari pencerobohan pencuri atau penyamun?

Adakah anda telah melaksanakan langkah pengawalan hazad pencerobohan ini secara "ALARP - As low as Reasonably Practiable".

Dari pengalaman sendiri dan rakan saya, kedua-dua kami tidak memasang pagar besi (Grill) di pintu dapur rumah. Dari situlah penyamun-penyamun ini menceroboh masuk dengan memecah atau membuka paksa pintu tersebut.

Inilah langkah pengawalan ALARP yang dapat dilakukan tetapi kerana tidak membuat penilaian risiko, maka langkah pengawalan ini terlepas pandang. 

Keesokan harinya, sekitar jam 5 pagi rumah seorang Menteri Muda beberapa kilometer dari rumah rakan saya, pula diceroboh penyamun.

Rumah anda bagaimana, adakah ianya selamat? 

Nampak gaya kita tidak boleh bergantung kepada pemantauan (surveillance) pihak polis semata-mata, kita juga perlu proaktif membuat 'HIRAC - Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Control" terhadap hazad pencerobohan pencuri/penyamun ini. HIRAC ini sudah pasti berada dalam "Quadrant II" dalam Matriks segi empat "First Things First" ciptaan Stephen R. Covey.

Selamat Berpuasa

Kepada rakan dan pengunjung muslim, saya ucapkan selamat berpuasa. Di Satok Kuching, Bazaar Ramadhan akan diadakan seperti tahun-tahun yang lepas di tempat yang sama.

Jagalah kesihatan sepanjang bulan Ramadhan terutama tabiat pemakanan dan merokok. Makanlah setakat yang perlu, bulan inilah untuk melatih diri mengawal tabiat makan. Pada yang merokok, mulalah nafas baru sempena Ramadhan dengan menghentikan tabiat menghisap rokok.

Selamat berpuasa, semuga kedatangan Ramadhan al-Mubarak ini memberi tarbiyah yang maksimum kepada kita.

Testing with MarsEdit

This posting is posted by using MarsEdit.

Bolasepak dan Keselamatan Pekerjaan

Bolasepak adalah permainan sukan yang melibatkan sentuhan badan antara pemain-pemain. Sentuhan ini berlaku untuk merebut bola daripada pemain yang menguasainya, tujuannya hanya satu - untuk menendang bola tersebut ke arah gol bagi mendapatkan gol kemenangan. Dalam kiriman yang lepas saya mengaitkan strategi yang diatur oleh pasukan dengan hantaran bola tepat kepada rakan pemain pasukan dan pada saat yang sama berlaku kelalaian di pihak pertahanan lawan, lalu memboleh bola membolosi apabila peristiwa ini berlaku serentak ianya ibarat "model keju swiss" mengenai kemalangan.
Kiriman saya kali ini melihat perhubungan bolasepak dan keselamatan dari sudut kebajikan pekerja dalam konteks bolasepak pemain.
Dalam bolasepak, kesebelasan pemain utama (termasuk juga pemain simpanan) merupakan aset pasukan. Jadi apabila berlaku kecederaan kepada mana-mana pemain yang menjadi ayam tambatan pasukan, maka pasukan akan mempergunakan seluruh usaha dan sumber kewangan untuk memulihkan pemain tersebut supaya cepat sembuh dari kecederaan dan turun bermain untuk membantu pasukan meraih kemenangan dalam perlawan seterusnya.
Sebaliknya, kebanyakan organisasi gagal melihat pekerjanya sebagai aset utama organisasi mereka. Pekerja merupakan "alat utama" sesuatu organisasi tak kira apa bentuk aktiviti perniagaannya. Alat utama atau "primary tool" merupakan istilah yang saya pinjam dari sifu saya dalam bidang ergonomiks iaitu Dr. Jalaludin Dahalan.
Sebagai alat utama organisasi, kaum pekerja juga terdedah dengan fenomena "wear & tear" atau pakai dan rosak seperti alat organisasi kedua iaitu mesin, kenderaan, komputer dan sebagainya. Kalau alat kedua memerlukan program pengekakalan (maintenance) maka pekerja sebagai perkakas utama juga memerlukan program pengekalan kesihatan dan keselamatan pekerjaan, supaya tahap kesihatan dan keselamatan mereka di tempat kerja berada dalam tahap optimum untuk meningkatkan produktiviti organisasi. Ini penting untuk membolehkan organisasi tersebut terus kekal bersaing dan bertahan dalam persaingan zaman globalisasi ini.
Walaupun kesihatan dan keselamatan bukanlah hanya syarat untuk mengoptimumkan keupayaan pekerja, malah tahap ilmu dan kompeten dalam bidang yang dicebur juga penting, namun kesihatan dan keselamatan merupakan aset yang dimiliki oleh setiap pekerja - inilah sahaja harta yang ada pada semua pekerja - kalau harta ini tidak dijaga dengan baik, maka nilai pekerja akan hilang. Apalah gunanya kepakaran dalam apa-apa bidang apabila tahap kesihatan tidak mengizinkan pekerja menyumbangkan kepakaran tersebut, apalah gunanya kepakaran yang ada, jika sebahagian dari anggota badan tidak dapat berfungsi - ada telinga tapi pekak akibatv terdedah dengan kebisingan di tempat kerja, ada jari tapi kudung akibat dipotong mesin di tempat kerja kerana mengabaikan aspek keselamatan pekerjaan.
Memang benarlah ungkapan yang dikatakan oleh Pertubuhan Kesihatan Sedunia (WHO- World Health organisation) bahawa : "KESIHATAN itu bukanlah segala-galanya, namun SEGALA-GALANYA tidak bermakna tanpa KESIHATAN".

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Champions Youth Cup - Piala Kejuaraan Belia

Pada malam ahad, 12 Ogos yang lalu, saya dan dua orang anak saya menyaksikan Perlawanan bolasepak Piala Kejuaran Belia di Stadium Negeri Sarawak, perlawanan di antara Bayern Munich dan Chelsea.
Semasa menyaksikan perlawanan tersebut, yang berakhir dengan seri 1-1, saya mendapat satu kefahaman mengenai keselamatan pekerjaaan. Perlawanan bolasepak boleh dijadikan metafor bagi memahami aspek keselamatan di tempat kerja. Mengabaikan keselamatan di tempat kerja akan berakhir dengan kemalangan, samada ianya serius meragut nyawa atau hampir mencederakan ( "near missed" - sepatutnya "near happened").
Pertahanan sesebuah pasukan boleh diibaratkan sebagai langkah pengawalan (control measures) bagi mengelak berlakunya akibat dari pendedahan kepada hazad .Efek Hazad ibarat serangan pasukan lawan untuk mendapatkan gol. Gol dalam konteks bolasepak boleh diibarat sebagai Kemalangan dalam konteks Keselamatan di tempat kerja.
Apabila hantaran bola dari seorang pemain kepada pemain berikutnya bertepatan dan pada masa yang sama berlaku kelekaan atau kelalaian pemain pertahanan lawan, maka tendangan untuk mendapatkan gol akan berjaya dengan mudah. Begitu juga dalam aspek keselamatan pekerjaan, apabila perlakuan tidak selamat dan keadaan tidak selamat berlaku serentak disertai dengan kekurangan langkah pengawalan, maka akan berlakulah kemalangan. Pelarasan atau "synchronising" faktor-faktor ini dipanggil oleh pakar bidang keselamatan sebagai "Swiss Cheese Model" bagi sesuatu kemalangan untuk berlaku.


Kiriman ini menandakan laman blog ini akan menggunakan dwi bahasa dalam kiriman seterusnya. Kiriman ini telah dibuat melalui pelayar internet "Flock".

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PUBLIC HEALTH OUTREACH AT KG PENGKALAN KUAP

On last Saturday, 18 August, 2007 Kuching Specialist Hospital organised an outreach public health screening program at Kg Pengkalan Kuap Samarahan from 2 pm to 5 pm. I gave a health talk on Hypertension for about 20 minutes followed by Q&A sessions. A lot of questions asked by the audience regarding their health problem.
This posting is a testing post using FLOCK.

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SHO course in MIRI

I just back from MIRI last nite after giving lectures on Occupational Health Module for SHO course organised by NIOSH Sarawak. About 14 participants attended the course, all of them are very enthusiastic about OSH. I wish them success in their involvement in OSH field. Welcome to OSH world.

Is this Safe?

This photo was taken by one of SHO course participant. The photo clearly shows us about safety practice. The question we should ask as a safety practitioner is: Is this good standard operation procedure? To me this is both unsafe condition and unsafe act. When both factors occur simultaneously, the risk of accident is high. 

SHO Course Teaching at NIOSH KUCHING

Today I involved in teaching session at NIOSH Kuching: - Ergonomics , Occupational & Psychosocial Stress, Shiftwork and Mental workload. This is part of Occupational Health module for  SHO course. About 14 participants enrolled in this part time modular course.

First photo above showed the slide title of one of the lectures and second photo showed some of the participants during the break time.

Industrial Accident

The above photo showed cut wound at the first web of left hand of one worker who was accidentally hit by a broken glass at work.

Safety & Health Committee (SHC) meeting

On 28 June recently, we have our 9th Safety & Health Committee (SHC). A lot of issues was brought up by the members including exposure to radiation in operation theatre. Our next meeting will be in September, 2007.

Food Safety

I took these two photos from a local restaurant classified as Class A and  from one hawker at weekend market.

What do you think about the food safety in these two scenes?

I will be presenting on "Medical Fitness requirements for Food handlers"  at the seminar on 'Food Safety,Handling & Solid Waste Management' organised by NIOSH Sarawak as follows:

Date: 18 - 19 July 2007

Venue: Holiday Inn, Kuching

My blog is already one year old

I started this blog on 11 June last year (2006). The purpose of this blog is to educate the workforce about the important of their health and safety as the valuable asset beside knowledge. The mission of this blog is helping the workforce to become healthy and productive workforce. My mantra is to promote and protect health at workplace.
I hope this webblog will help the workforce to become valuable human capital or "modal insan" to the nation.
I will try to give more informations on OSH and updating the visitors on the local news on OSH.

Is Safety priceless ?

Last Thursday, 7 April 2007, I handled one emergency case at our A&E unit. This case is a 36 year old chinese man, involved in group fight. He was slashed on the face using sharp object (?parang ? samurai) resulting in splitted of his face into 2 and broken of the back of his right skull. CT scan showed the optic nerve of his right eye was totally torn. He came to our hospital drove by his friend who was also involved in the fight but sustained only slashed wound at the lower middle of the back. He managed to walk to our A&E.
Are the life and safety priceless nowadays?

HEALTH & PRODUCTIVITY MANAGEMENT

Health Cost at workplace is usually considered as EXPENSES rather than as INVESTMENT. ACOEM -American Congress of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, introduced what they called HPM - Health and Productivity Management at the workplace. HPM try to change this belief of workers health as a Cost/Expenses to workers health cost as the Investment.
In his blog, Health politics, Dr Mike Magee has a videoblog on HPM entiteled Rethinking Health at workplace, go here to watch the video:
http://www.healthpolitics.org/archives.asp?previous=healthy_work_environment

Healthy workforce is the asset..... MODAL INSAN a term coined by our Prime Minister DS Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Because Healthy workforce is a productive workforce.

Health Talk to SHELL Driver

This morning, I gave a health talk on "The Management of Fatigue" to SHELL drivers employed by Pengangkutan Mekar Tiasa (PMT) at Pending. An hour talk was planned 2 month ago by the Human Resource Unit of PMT. Around 15 people mainly drivers attended the talk. I have covered 6 scopes of fatigue in this talk:
1. What is fatigue and its spectrum?
2. How common is fatigue?
3. What is the cause of fatigue?
4. What is the effect of fatigue?
5. Who is at risk?
6. What is the treatment?
I am very happy with the response from the drivers; 6 of them participated actively in asking questions.
I have reminded them, fatigue can affect their performance as the driver. Study showed that Working for more than 20 hours is equivalent to the effect of Blood Alcohol Level of 0.1g/100cc. This is above the legal alcohol allowed by the law which is less than 0.08g/100cc.

UNSAFE CONDITION

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS OF INJURY / ILLNESS

Injury is a sequence of events. If all the factors contributing to injury synergise each other or exist simultaneously, then the injury will occur. The injury can be in the form of accident or near-hit (near-missed) incident.
There are two important contributing factors namely UNSAFE ACT and UNSAFE condition. UNSAFE ACT is the act of human that can cause injury such as driving and using handphone at the same time. It can be classified as the person factors. Why that person doing that Unsafe Act? It depends on a lot of factors such as knowledge, skill,attitude and behaviour. UNSAFE conditions on the other hand, are any pre-existence condition which can jeopardise the safety and health such as damage road, smooth floor etc. UNSAFE conditions usually classified as Environmental factors.

RISK ASSEESMENT IN OSH

Risk Assessment in Occupational Safety and Health is about identifying the hazards and determine our exposure and consequence to that hazard. Determine the exposure to the existence hazard is the first step in its risk assessment. What is your and other workers' exposure to the hazards : daily, weekly, monthly or occasionally. Then you consider what is the CONSEQUENCE of that hazard and what is its PROBABLITY. The CONSEQUENCE can be No injury, Minor injury, Moderate injury and Severe injury even Fatality. The probability of the consequence can be determined from the record or database of your workplace or other workplace, it is either probably, possibly, unlikely or rare.
Some Risk Registered System assigned the value to the Exposure level and Consequence to make it looks quantitative, therefore the RISK will be the product of: Exposure X Consequence.This quantitative value formed what we called Risk Matrix.
From the Risk Assessment we decide whether the RISK is acceptable or not. ALL RISK that result in FATALITY, DAMAGE to property and environment are not acceptable.
Either the risk is acceptable or not, you have to do something to reduce the risk as practicable as possible, this step is called CONTROL MEASURE or RISK MANAGEMENT.
The above is the simplest way I can explain on what is risk assessment and risk management.

HAPPY WORLD DAY FOR SAFETY AND HEALTH AT WORK - 28 April 2007

International Labour Organisation (ILO) declared 28th April, 2007 is the World Day for Safety and Health at Work with this year theme :Safe and Healthy Workplaces - Making Decent Work a Reality
Workers is the primary tool for all business. Without workers, any business will collapse. Let us take care of our workers by promoting and protecting their health and safety at workplace.
Happy OSH day to all.

Step 1: Identify the hazard

Photo 1:

Photo 2:




Can you identify what is the HAZARD in the above two photos?
Identification the hazard is the first step in Risk Assessment.

RISK ASSESSMENT IS MEASURING THE EXPOSURE TO HAZARD

All workplaces have health and safety hazard, the only difference is the type of the hazard. Although hazard can brings harm but without exposure to the hazard, the harm is not significance. So, how much exposure do you have to the hazard, is the main question in managing safety and health at workplace.
The steps taken to measure this exposure to the hazard is called risk assessment in OSH terminology. So risk assessment is a proactive steps to identify the hazard and its exposure to the workers.
The questions ask in health and safety risk assessment are :
1. What is the hazard?
2. Who are exposed to the hazard?
3. How much is the exposure?
4. What is the consequence if hazard released its harm during this expsoure?
5. Is the risk significant?
6. Are the control measures adequate to prevent the conseqeunces of the hazard?
I will give the anwer to the above questions in my next posting... stay tune

DOSH's Seminar on Occupational Health services

Yesterday (5th April), I attended one day seminar on occupational health services (OHS) organised by DOSH Sarawak. The seminar was attended by 250 participants, majority are OH practitioners. 5 papers were presented by OH experts. Dr Abu Hasan Samad, one of the OH expert and sifu in Malaysia, presented a paper on the effective way to implement OHS. He explained in detail on the scopes of OHS. 2nd speaker, Tuan Hj Anuar Mokhtar a well-known Industrial Hygienist from DOSH, presented a paper on the scope of duty of Industrial Hygienist. Dr Faridah Mohd Amin, Deputy Director (Occupational Health Section) of DOSH Putra Jaya presented in brief the new DOSH guideline (2005) on OHS.
Two speakers Ms Tham from BASF-PETRONAS and Mr Nawawi from one of PETRONAS subsidiary company in Kuantan, Pahang shared their experinces in implementation of OHS in their plant.
Hopefully this seminar will help OH practitioner to understand more on the OHS and the strategies to implement OHS at their organisation.
One person approached me asking about the "out source way" to provide OHS and I promised to propose to his organisation on this.

My Activities in the first 2 weeks of March 2007

On the 5th of March, I gave lectures on Basic Ergonomics and Ergonomics risk factors, Shift work, Mental workload and occvupational Stress to the participants of Full Time SHO Course in Bintulu. I departed to Bintulu on Sunday 4th March at 3;30 pm and back to Kuching on 5th March at 5:30 pm.
On the 12th March 2007, I and another 3 of Kuching Specialist hospital's staff (including our GM) joined YB Datin Hjh Fatimah Abdullah and State legislative Speaker DS Awang Asfia in the Sejahtera Task Force II at Kg Penibong of Pulau Bruit Daro. Kg Penibong is located about 2 hours using Speedboat equipped with 400 horse power engine from Sibu Town.
Along two hours journey some of us sat in awkward postion (non-ergonomics) which caused back pain.

After 2 month breaks....

After almost 3 months, today I finally completed my training session with PPKS students. I am involved in teaching Certificate in Safety Inspector Program, SHO certificate Program and Certificate in Halal Executive Program.
All these 3 programs are for unemployed graduate, just imagine how lucky they are; fully sponsored by government with pocket money. I taught them Occupational health and Ergonomics module. For Halal Executive sertificate, I was given a task to lecture them on Perubatan Halal BUT I prefer the term Perubatan Islam.
I will continue posting in my blog from now onward. Stay tuned.